Several Nigerians are facing long queues at petrol stations due to disagreements between oil marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Many filling stations have been shut down in Abuja and the neighboring Nasarawa and Niger States.
This is just as queues are growing in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Independent oil marketers say it has been difficult to buy petrol for over a month due to scarcity but the NNPCL claims to have a 30-day supply of the product.
The Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), which controls over 70 percent of retail petrol stations, insists oil depots in the ever-busy Apapa area of Lagos have run dry.
The association’s spokesman, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, also alleges that depot owners were selling petrol for N601 to N605 per liter, well above the approved NNPCL price of N577 to N578.
This is not the first time oil marketers have disagreed with the NNPCL over the state of Nigeria’s downstream petroleum market.
At the start of October, IPMAN alleged that the Nigerian government had renewed the payment of petrol subsidies, using the NNPCL, which is 100 percent government-owned.
It based its claim on rising global oil prices and a weakening naira which would have made the ‘landing cost’ of petrol in Nigeria close to N800 a liter. Filling stations sell the product for less than that amount at the pumps.
“Subsidy is still ongoing behind the scenes,” Dr. Joseph Obele, the IPMAN chairman in Rivers State told Nigeria Info on 17 October.
The state oil company denies subsidies are still paid on petrol.
